McCain Keeps Mentioning Country That Hasn’t Existed Since 1992
EmailIn early 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush told Roger Simon, then with U.S. News & World Report, that he was befuddled by how soft the media was on Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"I don’t think there is any plot; I hope there isn’t," Bush said. "But it’s an amazing phenomenon, I’ll tell you that. It’s like the flap over the foreign-leader deal. A guy gets up and quizzes me — it’s my fault for trying to answer — but John McCain says something about the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia (there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia), but yet it didn’t make the nightly national news. I’m not going to gripe about it, but the media question is starting to pop up."
Apparently that Czechoslovakia lesson never took, because McCain keeps making that mistake, eight years later.
"I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days," McCain said this week. "One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech’s agreement with us concerning missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the Cold War, is also a concern."
Well, I’d be concerned too!
Especially since I was under the impression that on January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia — two separate countries.
Greg Sargent points out that this is not an isolated incident, that earlier this year McCain told Don Imus he’d "work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland" (Poland still exists!) on the European Missile Defense System, and during a October 2007 Republican debate sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations McCain said he’d "make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what (Vladimir Putin’s) objections are to it."
The issue is bubbling up quite a bit on liberal blogs with the argument that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, (as with Bush before him) could never get away with such an error. The idea being that McCain claims great foreign policy experience and knowledge, so why does he keep urging action on a missile shield for a country that hasn’t existed since George H.W. Bush was president?
Herein we offer a helpful list of other countries that no longer exist (Hey, Brooke, — clip and save):
The U.S.S.R.
Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Kongo
Upper Volta
Persia
Ivory Coast
Burma
West Germany
East Germany.
North Yemen
South Yemen
Southern Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Ceylon
Portuguese West Africa
Nyasaland
French West Africa
New Holland
Constantinople
Gold Coast
…I’d also avoid mentioning Pangaea.
- jpt
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What is Obama talking about the Press would not let him get away with it, the press lets Obama get away with straight out lies, racism, anti-Americanism, flip-flopping, what is he talking about??
But this is not news anyhow, People still call Russia the USSR it is out of habit not knowledge!
Posted by: spock | July 15, 2008, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
Spock,
First of all, Tapper’s article never once quotes Obama. It quotes GW Bush. Ergo, Obama isn’t talking about anything here.
Second of all, you might have noticed in the article following this one that Tapper goes into detail on Obama’s changing positions regarding the Iraq War.
Third of all, mind giving us a quote FROM OBAMA that displays his anti-Americanism?
Posted by: SCG | July 15, 2008, 3:53 pm 3:53 pm
Why should anyone want to get away with it? Certainly, you aren’t claiming that McCain isn’t literate, educated, or well-versed in diplomacy, are you? Meanwhile, as US citizens, many of us refer to ourselves as Americans with exclusion of diverse people in the Americas, but no one brings us to task. The reason they don’t is because such nit picking produces scores of moot points. The conversation ends in dumb silence.
Obama gets away with denying involvement with real entities and subversive agendas all the time, and that seems much more dangerous to me. McCain speaks from years of experience; his habits will not lead to war, but Obama’s habits and deceitful ways could.
Posted by: SeeingrightthroughObana | July 15, 2008, 3:58 pm 3:58 pm
Its true that the media gives McCain a free pass and I might add it is one of the only things Bush has been right about.
Posted by: Jen | July 15, 2008, 3:58 pm 3:58 pm
Spock, you’re wrong.
First, Obama is not talking about the biases of the press, yet.
It is outside observers, some supporters, others like me, longtime media critics who think the reporting of this campaign is more focused on non-news items like Jesse Jackson than on real issues.
Second, McCain is trying to sell himself as a foreign policy expert, but with repeated misstatements (not lapses) about Czechoslovakia, Sunni V Shia, and others, someone should at the very least notice it.
Thank you Jake. But your somewhat bemused tone doesn’t do the topic justice. Bush was right in 2000, and the media is still giving McCain a free pass.
Posted by: Brian | July 15, 2008, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
McSame has no historical and foreign policy understandings, his serious lack of intellect is underpining all of these behaviors exhibited by McSame.
Posted by: BKMC | July 15, 2008, 3:59 pm 3:59 pm
Spock,
When someone’s running for president of the United States, I’d like for him to speak out of knowledge, not habit.
Posted by: Hoosier | July 15, 2008, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm
Yet again mccain follows obama on key issues
lol
John McCain likes to paint Barack Obama as a naive follower on key national security issues. But by moving up his planned Afghanistan speech by two days to follow Obama’s, and by agreeing that more U.S. troops are needed there, McCain appears to be following the Illinois Democrat on a major proposed shift for U.S. foreign policy.
Posted by: bhrandon | July 15, 2008, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Mccain flip flops on afghanistan
LOL!!!!
Posted by: bhrandon | July 15, 2008, 4:06 pm 4:06 pm
Wow the media holds McCain accountable for something (minor, instead of the abundance of things he MAJORLY doesn’t get right) I guess John is a liberal Democrat after all.
Posted by: pity | July 15, 2008, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
McCain should ask W if
Czechoslovakia has
nucular weapons???
Posted by: Bert V | July 15, 2008, 4:17 pm 4:17 pm
I for one refuse to remember Burma’s new name!
So long as “Brooklyn” remains “Brooklyn”
who cares?
Posted by: eyes wide open | July 15, 2008, 4:19 pm 4:19 pm
and obama believes the US has 57 states~!
Posted by: trettione | July 15, 2008, 4:22 pm 4:22 pm
“McSame has no historical and foreign policy understandings,
…..Oh yes he does! and an enormous background in government and the military……….but what the hell is an “underpining”?????
Is that a wishy weed under a weeping willow?
hmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Posted by: hmmmmmmmmmmmm | July 15, 2008, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
Eyes wide open, it’s not about a “new name.” Burma and Myanmar are the same country. The Czech Republic and Slovakia split into two separate countries 16 years ago.
In fairness to Senator McCain, maybe Cindy is just slow to work through his old email.
Posted by: LESD | July 15, 2008, 4:27 pm 4:27 pm
It would be one thing if it was just an isolated slip of the tongue – like Obama’s “57 states.” But it’s not. Aside from Czechoslovakia, there are the much more disconcerting confusions between Sunni and Shia and Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan that he has repeatedly made.
When you consider these ongoing misconceptions, and then imagine this man having his finger on the button, not just now but FIVE YEARS FROM NOW, it really gives you pause.
Posted by: EricNYC | July 15, 2008, 4:30 pm 4:30 pm
hmmm
McCain has years in the government but his foreign policy understanding is obviously seriously lacking…
he didn’t understand there are tribes in the middle east who have been warring for centuries and chances are us holding a gun to their heads and saying make-up and become a government…
wouldn’t work… even if we lie to insiurgents and promise them positions of power and money that don’t exist.
McCain gets military plans…
but our problems in the world are not military problems…
they are diplomatic and cultural…
thus McCain doesn’t think it is important to differentiate between a company that existed and the two countries that exist now.
old man yells at cloud.
Posted by: dl | July 15, 2008, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
he just doesn’t think it is important to know the difference.
and there is the problem
neither did Bush.
anough with frat boys trying to impress their fathers with cowboy military diplomacy rather than REAL diplomacy.
Posted by: dl | July 15, 2008, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has now called for a withdrawal timetable. Senator McCain has acknowledged the sovereignty of Iraq’s government and pledges that US troops will leave when Maliki asks them too. He’s asking for a timetable. Let’s give him one.
Barack Obama wants to withdraw combat troops by mid-2010. The US general in Iraq in charging of training Iraq’s army and police says they will be ready to “stand up” and assert control of Iraq’s security by 2009. Let’s allow Iraqis to assume responsibility for their own country. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen says Afghanistan needs more US troops, and that they can’t be added until troops are withdrawn from Iraq.
It’s time for the war in Iraq to end. Obama will end it in a responsible way. McCain will not. That’s the real story for today.
Posted by: LESD | July 15, 2008, 4:47 pm 4:47 pm
ENOUGH WITH THE AGE RAGE!
JESUS IS OLDER THAN ANYONE BUT G-D”.
Should we not venerate him.
The Dalai Lama was born in 1931.
Should we “diss” him?
Where I work, we have “chiefs” in their 80′s who are considered to be VALUABLE to our company.
I know doctors of that age who while not working as medics, are revered as mentors and tutors.
Will you tell your parents their lives
are finished because YOUR timetable permits for NO EXCEPTIONS?
John McCain is a leader who has proven his worth time after time both in congress and at the front.
He has, in his long years of service ,accomplished more with less gaffes and boneheaded mistakes (per years of service and accmplishments) than Obama.
And,unlike Obama (BO(?),BHO(?)BARRY(?)
HE CAN REMEMBER HIS NAME!!!!!
Posted by: hmmmmmmmmmmmm | July 15, 2008, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
McCain “discovered” today that it might be useful to have more US troops in Afghanistan…about 2 hours after Obama said the same thing for the umpteenth time. Yet, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen has said the following:
“I don’t have troops I can reach for, brigades I can reach to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq.”
Maliki wants the US to provide a withdrawal timetable and says Iraq can take responsibility for its own security. For how much longer will US taxpayers be asked to spend $10 billion per month on Iraq? June was the dealiest month for US troops in Afghanistan since the war began almost seven years ago. This problem bears directly on US national interests.
McCain doesn’t get it. Obama does.
Posted by: LESD | July 15, 2008, 5:02 pm 5:02 pm
No, Mr. hmmmmmm, I will not “tell my parents that their lives are finished.” Nor will I encourage them to run for president of the United States.
I’m very happy that your company has 80 year old employees making valuable contribution to the company’s work. We can only admire their work ethic. But we’re not talking about an ordinary job here. It’s president of the United States.
Posted by: LESD | July 15, 2008, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
Umm, there are not one but two countries called Congo, so perhaps that should be taken off the list.
Both the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still very much countries, and the CIA World Factbook lists the conventional short name of the Republic of the Congo as “Congo (Brazzaville).”
Posted by: Andrew | July 15, 2008, 5:11 pm 5:11 pm
Didn’t there used to be a Palestine, as well. Somehow people have managed to block that out.
Posted by: Truth Matters | July 15, 2008, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
”
WE HAVE NO ethicS. But we’re not talking about an ordinary job here. It’s president of the United States.’
pOSTED by: LESD | Jul 15,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
EXACTLY!
Last time I looked, there were restrictions regarding a candidate’s youth… and citizenship.
Will we be re-writing the rules shortly?Maybe we should…… maybe no baby boomers should be permitted to run…..?
Or maybe nobody over 46…..
Would that suit?
It would get rid of contenders like Hillary….
forget that today’s 50 is yesterday’s 60….. that’s just Oprah!
Posted by: eyes wide open | July 15, 2008, 5:46 pm 5:46 pm
To Jake Tapper
Obama called Maliki the president of Iraq and it the MSM didn’t pick it up.
Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq.
Obama called the leader of Canada the president of Iraq. Canada has no president the leader is the prime minister for the last 140 years.
Obama said 100 million died in Burma.
Wrong.
Obama called sunrise florida sunshine florida four times.
Obama said 57 states.
Obama said 10,000 died in a tornado in Kansas.
McCain just yesterday also called it the Czech Republic twice.
When Obama slips on his tounge you say nothing.
Obama called Maliki the president of iraq and the media was silent.
I can’t take the east coast liberal media anymore.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
McCain did not confuse Sunni and Shia.
That is a lie. McCain never confused sunni and shia.
McCain said al queda got some training in iran from sunnis in iran.
Obama has confused sunni and shia many times.
In a debate with Petreaus Obama said Iran is in charge of special groups.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 5:50 pm 5:50 pm
Obama didn’t even know that there is speculation in the oil markets.
McCain said there is psycology in the oil markets and the fool Obama said washington speak to make you feel better. Offshore driling would have a psycological effect on the oil markets.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
Obama never holds open town halls.
McCain talks to the media on his bus every day.
Obama says nothing that isn’t on script.
McCain has held several hundred town halls.
McCain at La Raza took questions afterwards Obama wouldn’t.
McCain talks to the media on his plane he and bus for hours while Obama walked out of his press conference in texas.
Obama wouldn’t accept McCain’s invitation for 10 town halls.
Obama doesn’t talk without a teleprompter.
Obama won’t accept a CBS invitation for a town hall in front of the military at fort hood in texas. McCain accepted. A military organization had to go public to say Obama is ducking them.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
Obama called ICE agents terrorists for arresting illegals.
Obama wants change, he wants marxism.
Obama is so far left he will make cuba’s leader look conservative.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 5:59 pm 5:59 pm
McCain has gone to Nato security conferences for years.
Obama never gone.
Obama has zero foreign policy experience. He has spent his time in wright’s church for running for office.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
To Jake Tapper:
Obama last year said the surge was a problem and wouldn’t work.
Now he scrubbed that from his site.
That is our messiah Obama.
Posted by: Michael | July 15, 2008, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm
NAT SPLAT:
“Denial is cold-blooded, isn’t it?”
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT Y O U’RE GOING TO FIND OUT!.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Posted by: yesssssssssss | July 15, 2008, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
Remember……
Donkeys can’t win horse races.
Especially when up against a political stallion in Obama.
Man, this election is going to be like taking money from a Republican.
OBAMA 08
Posted by: Nat Turner | July 15, 2008, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
‘Donkeys can’t win horse races”
WELL, I guess that kicks the bucket out from under BO(?), BHM(?) BARRY(?).
So sad.
Posted by: yesssssssssss | July 15, 2008, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
McCain says he knows war, that he knows how to run a war. Are we going to be at WAR from now until the end of time?
How about some peace. Someone who knows how to TALK WITH (not always to) other countries, not the “my way or the highway” approach of Bush/McCain.
Posted by: Alan Coleman | July 15, 2008, 7:35 pm 7:35 pm
McCain recently said, “I know how
to win wars.”
Which one? Vietnam? Iraq?
Posted by: anon | July 15, 2008, 8:37 pm 8:37 pm
uh, ivory coast definitely still exists. i mean it’s sometimes called cote d’voir or something like that, which is french for “ivory coast”. or the republic of the ivory coast is the official title, but that’s like saying china isn’t a country because it’s the people’s republic of china. ivory coast: still a country.
Posted by: cavemandave | July 15, 2008, 8:44 pm 8:44 pm
At least McCain’s lapse or habit of reference is concerning European countries and their changing politics.
But, realistically, which one of you bloggers could claim to be 100% correct all of the time if you were on the campaign trail for years at a time?
Posted by: Jayhawk | July 15, 2008, 9:31 pm 9:31 pm
Oh, my…
It’s “The Gnat!”
Must be time for Gnat lessons on the Gong Show…
Posted by: Jayhawk | July 15, 2008, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm
Some other countries that no longer exist:
the Confederate States of America
the Kingdom of Hawaii
the Republic of Vietnam
the Republic of Texas
the Republic of California
the Kingdom of Lydia (McCain visited there once, I think)
the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
the Ottoman Empire
the Austro-Hungarian Empire
That some of these political entities no longer exist as such is not necessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: Steffan | July 15, 2008, 9:57 pm 9:57 pm
The real issue is the eastward
expansion of NATO into some
former republics of the
Soviet Union. Missile defense
system has no popular support
- either in the Czech Republic
or in Poland. Their parliaments
have not yet voted on it.
It’s also causing tensions with
Russia which may get back by
supporting former Soviet client
states like Syria, Iraq, Iran
and others against US interests.
The Russian view is that the
missile defense systems so close
to their country is a direct
threat to them although the
stated intentions are that
they are meant shoot down
missiles launched by rogue
states like Iran at Europe.
The Russians are also saying
Iranian missile threat to
Europe is non-existent either
now or long into the future
- if ever.
These are the issues McCain
should be discussing in his
town hall meetings.
Posted by: anon | July 15, 2008, 10:30 pm 10:30 pm
Now Jake, I do wish you would stop referring to Constantinople as a country that doesn’t exist anymore. In fact, it never existed as a country – it was a city (now called Istanbul).
Posted by: JMC | July 15, 2008, 10:31 pm 10:31 pm
And who said there are 57 States??!! States that never existed – forever!!
Posted by: Beckie | July 15, 2008, 11:37 pm 11:37 pm
Well, understandable, some people still refer to Burma. It’s a time thing, not a knowledge thing. Take Obama’s pretty dumb repeated remark that he would transfer the Arab translators used in Iraq to Afghanistan to assist there…..right…or as someone has mentioned, -we’ve been to 57 states and one to go- We can go on with this….
Posted by: 58 state union | July 16, 2008, 12:03 am 12:03 am
We all know that Americans are not the most knowledgable when it comes to geography. Mainly because we are such a large country.
The real problem here is that the mistake was pointed out to McCain and he still repeats it. He can’t even remember the right football team in his own P.O.W. story. This is not someone who should be in charge of anything. He needs to retire.
Posted by: Cindy | July 16, 2008, 12:50 am 12:50 am
Iran is a tiny little country that doesn’t pose a serious threat—
24 hours later…
Iran is a grave threat.
Obama-wanting it both ways again.
Posted by: riley | July 16, 2008, 9:21 am 9:21 am
McCain graduated from the US Naval Academy 894th in a class of 899. He wrecked five jets before they finally got rid of him. Obviously he is not the brightest bulb on the tree. He was shot down by an out-of-date Soviet missile by men with no experience in anti-aircraft warfare because he did not follow the rules of evasion taught at the Academy. Let’s just say the man has only one oar in the water.
He disses two in five people on the face of the earth by referring to all Asians as “Gooks.” He may be viewed as a “hero,” but I don’t think being shot down qualifies him for the job of president.
Posted by: rhbate | July 16, 2008, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
Prattling about, McSame goes floating through the countryside. Brain (pea) in head oblivious to the very real issues concerning The People. Ha-ha, but will The People return the favor. Only our mystical big brother knows for sure.
Posted by: caliguy55 | July 16, 2008, 6:24 pm 6:24 pm
Burma doesn’t belong on that list – some might call it Burma because they don’t know to call it Myanmar, but for a lot of people, the purposefully use the name to show that they do not recognize the government of the junta, which is the body that renamed it. That’s why many overseas Burmese activists have the “Free Burma” campaigns, not “Free Myanmar.” I call it Burma for the same reason.
Posted by: merry | July 17, 2008, 9:33 am 9:33 am
Haha, this is why I think it would be good to get some young guys in politics every now and then. Older people like McCain are too stuck in the past.
Posted by: Megadyne | March 9, 2011, 11:54 am 11:54 am